Young Miss Holmes
by VintageRumorWriter
Summary: Penelope Holmes, Sherlock's second cousin comes to visit. And, apparently, solve a crime. Slight Johnlock :D
1. Chapter 1

**Author's note: so I recently started… and finished… watching Sherlock. Anyways… I have now words. Best thing ever. So I'm being all fangirl-y in my room, then I'm like "FANFICTION! DUH!" so I came up with a lovely little idea. In my story, Sherlock has a second cousin who comes to stay. She helps him solve a crime he couldn't on his own. A bit of implied Johnlock.**

**Disclaima: I don't own Sherlock, cause otherwise I'D HURRY THE EFF UP AN DMAKE SEASON THREE ALREADY. #ANGST**

There was a girl of about age sixteen standing outside 221B Baker Street. An unusual sight, for sure. She wasn't related to Mrs. Hudson, and she wasn't related to John Watson. So who was she?

Penelope Holmes tentatively knocked on the door of the apartment. She was finally meeting the mysterious second cousin, the strange Sherlock.

She had the atypical family genes: black hair (though hers was straight), blue eyes and long limbs. So John was naturally surprised when he opened the door.

"Who're you?"

"Penelope Holmes," she said, sticking her hand out for him to shake. "Can I get a picture with you?"

"Sherlock!" John called up the stairs.

"What, John, could possibly be so important- wait, who're you?" the man said, stopping in his tracks at the sight of the vaguely familiar girl.

"Mom was right. I knew you wouldn't remember me," the girl said with a smile.

"Hmmm… American… presumably family… New York, you can tell by the accent… Penelope."

"Took you long enough," she said, rolling her eyes and pushing her way into the apartment.

"Sherlock," John whispered. "What's going on? Who's she? Did you know she was coming?"

"Second cousin. She was coming to visit, it was arranged months ago… must've slipped my mind… Angelica will be angry… Mycroft knew, I bet… conspiracy… meal planning…" Sherlock murmured, rambling on.

John went upstairs where he found Penelope making herself comfortable on the sofa with her laptop.

"So you're Sherlock's cousin?"

"_Second _cousin. And the blogs were right, you guys are a cute couple. Twitter was going crazy over my live streaming from inside your apartment just a second ago. You should've been there, they would've died for a view of John Watson in a casual state."

"Oh… what?"

She just shook her head and went back to her laptop.

Sherlock walked up the stars slowly, as if he were cautious of the girl who could be no more than sixteen and looked perfectly harmless.

"Penelope… hello… it's been quite a while," Sherlock said, trying to make small talk, obviously not a strong point.

"Penny," she corrected.

"Of, course. You like to be called Penny you can tell by the…"

Penelope cut him off. "I don't want to be deduced. I want to be taught how to deduce."

John looked taken aback, and Sherlock just looked bored.

"Doesn't everyone?" he responded bluntly.

"Good, we'll start tomorrow," she responded with a confident smile.

**Please review with thoughts! **


	2. Chapter 2

**Author's note: wheee yay I'm not the only person reading this. I see you guys, you know. I can view stats too!**

**Disclaimer: yup, you know, I obviously don't own Sherlock. **

(the next day)

"Ok, Penelo-Penny, I mean, deduce John. Where did he come from?" Sherlock said to the girl, who snorted with laughter.

"Well, dear Sherlock, when a man and a woman love each other very much…"

"You know what I mean."

"Well," she said, walking around John, appraising him. "He came from the grocery store, which is evident because he's carrying two brown paper bags."

"Where is Lestrade when you need him?" John said, tired of the banter.

"Actually," Sherlock said, looking up from his phone. "Just got a text. There's been a murderer! Thank heavens, it's been almost a week."

"Hold up a sec, gotta Tweet about it."

_"What?"_ Sherlock exclaimed, clearly taken aback.

"Twitter?"

Now they were both curious.

"It's like texting, except everyone in the world can see it, and you only get 180 **((I think?)) **characters. Celebrities do it, regular people do it, most bloggers do it," she said, looking pointedly at John.

"So you're- tweeting- about us? Why?"

"You have a fandom. Now let's get going."

"Sherlock? You know there's a teenage girl following you?" Lestrade asked when he saw Penny emerge from the cab with them.

"No, I was completely unaware. Of course I knew. She's my second cousin."

"Are you sure she should be here?"

"She's sixteen years old, Lestrade."

"Exactly…"

Sherlock and John went along, and Penelope trailed behind them, her fingers moving across her phone's keyboard rapidly.

"Now tell me about this one."

"Shot in head. We're not sure if it's suicide or murderer. She comes from a wealthy family and had a good life, so we're assuming the latter."

Sherlock silenced them with a wave of his hand as they walked into the girl's room, the crime scene.

"No jewelry in jewelry box… simple clothes… very few possessions… empty wallet… very few photos… no note…" Sherlock muttered to himself, while Penelope was making observations of her own.

"Suicide," Sherlock stated, and at the very same time, Penelope said "Murderer."

Review, please!


	3. Chapter 3

**Author's note: uh… why are my triple asterisks being taken away? I guess I'll have to do the xXx thing… but I really like my asterisks… so if you see any weird like "whoa when did they get there" just know. There were asterisks. :D**

**Disclaimer: I don't own this. You know that. I just like the space the disclaimer takes up.**

xXx

Everyone looked at Penelope, appalled. Nobody challenged Sherlock.

"Excuse me?" Sherlock said, taken aback slightly.

Penny just shrugged.

"Let's here you both out before a cat fight starts…" Lestrade said.

"Please, like I would ever stoop to such a petty level. Clearly, our friend here commit suicide."

"Prove it," Penny asked boldly, the room silent except for her.

"Well, her jewelry box is empty. I took a look into her sister's room, and she's got much less. Clearly less favored in the family. Not very many pictures on the wall, so not a lot of friends. There's a suicide note on Facebook, even."

"Ok, well, that was cute, but mine is better," Penny said in a child-like fashion.

"Go ahead. Impress me."

"Ok, well, look at her jewelry box. There are gaps in the ring holders, indicating they have indeed been used. The necklace hooks are slightly worn, so there have been in use as well. Look at the paint on the wall above her bed. It's a little chipped here and there, which leads me to believe that tape has been ripped off. Also, on our way here, I looked her up on Facebook. Her grammar and spelling were impeccable, up until her last post. You wouldn't go all text speak on your final post, ever, would you?"

"That doesn't mean anything," Sherlock responded with a roll of his eyes. Besides, he thought, the jewelry box could be a hand-me-down.

"Oh, no. Little Kate here had some secrets, too. She got involved in the bad crowd quite a bit, too. I'm not done, yet," she walked over to a mini decorative pillow and grabbed a letter opener off the desk. "You see, Kate had a drug problem and she owed lots of money. You know how I know that?" she started sawing off the seam and pointed out how many times it had been unsewn.

"So?"

"So," she said, breaking the last seam, causing little white flakes to fall out. "She sold her jewelry to pay off money, lost her friends to the drugs, and whoever shot her left the note to cover up their tracks."

"How the hell- that makes sense," Sherlock said, stumbling over his words.

"Oh my god," John murmured, stunned that someone could one-up Sherlock, and that the person would be a sixteen year old.

"Lestrade," someone called. "We've got two of them!"

xXx

**Please review! I know it was short, but, hey, it's the weekend, give me a break!** I tooIiIIiitsfdwoifj


	4. Chapter 4

**Author's note: ok… little mess up with the last chapter… wrong doc… embarrassing… won't happen again… /blush**

**Disclaimer: yup. The only character I own is Penny, so…**

xXx

There was an appalling silence that was only broken by Lestrade rushing into the room.

"Sherlock, what've you got?" he asked, only prolonging the awkwardness.

"Um, excuse me?" Penelope said timidly, putting on her little-girl face. "I've got something."

Lestrade looked at Sherlock, who nodded with a clear disdain.

Penelope explained the whole thing, not leaving out a single detail. Lestrade's eyes widened as she continued to speak.

"What? Well, I suppose. Sherlock…do you back up this?"

Sherlock nodded like a bitter toddler.

"Um, let's go now, eh?" John suggested.

xXx

"That was so much fun!" Penelope squealed as soon as they go into the cab.

How could you not feel some sort of affection for the girl? She was so enthused and childish, but smart and logical. You couldn't help but crack a smile at her child-like giddiness over the accomplishment.

"Yes, I suppose," and then in a whispered tone, "John, what am I supposed to do with her?"

"What?" John responded, looking confused.

"Do we have to feed her at some point? Does she sleep?" Sherlock asked, crinkling his eyebrows.

John let out a bark of laughter. "Of course. She's a child, not an animal. We can't just let her out into the streets to fend for herself. I'm an adult, I can live with your strange habits, but children can't just provide for themselves."

"Oh, well. What does she eat?"

"Ask her."

"Penelope," Sherlock turned to face her. "What would you like to eat for dinner?"

"Do you have grilled cheese stuff?" she asked Sherlock, who looked at John.

"I dunno, probably not," he shrugged. "We'll see if we can buy some stuff off Mrs. Hudson."

xXx

They had the ingredients to grilled cheese now. Butter, bread and cheese. All three of them stood in front of the stove, wondering what to do now.

"Now what?"

"Don't we need a pan or something?"

"I think so, I'm not sure- oh, here."

"Shit, it's sticking to the pan."

**"THE CHEESE IS BURNING."**

"Why is the butter making the little bubbles- oh God, get away!"

And after many (many) attempts, they had one decent grilled cheese sandwich among themselves.

xXx

**Please review and give some thoughts/ideas for the story!**


	5. Chapter 5

**Author's note: well… sorry I don't update very consistently… it's just… Tumblr… Johnlock… :D**

**Disclaimer: nothing is mine**

xXx

After a long, chaotic day for the residents of 221B, Penelope Holmes was passed out on the couch, leaving John and Sherlock all alone. **((NOTHING SEXUAL, YOU DIRTY MINDS.))**

"John," Sherlock wondered out of the blue. "Do you think I'd make a good father?"

"What brought this on?"

"Well, I'm certainly not beginning to doubt myself, if that's what you're implying. Just science, is all."

"Well," John replied after thinking for a moment. "I think you'd be a great father."

"Really, John? Or are you just saying that?"

"Well, you'd need a bit of practice, of course. And, a girlfriend. **((OR A BOYFRIEND.))**"

"Right, right. Of course. And I am- "

"Married to your work, I know."

"Well, it's just," Sherlock looked at Penelope. "She's almost starting to grow on me."

"Well, she's a child, they tend to grow on you. Maybe try to have a normal conversation with her?"

xXx

Penelope woke with a start, not remembering where she was, and how she'd got there.

"Oh," she sighed to herself. "I'm at Sherlock's."

"Startled a bit?" John asked, emerging from the kitchen.

"Yeah, for a second I'd forgotten where I was!"

"Happens to me all the time," John said, earning a strange look from Penny. "Kidding, of course."

She laughed tentatively, almost like she thought she was being watched.

"So how do you like London so far?"

"Well, it's been interesting. Definitely more interesting than it would've been if I'd taken the class trip here."

They laughed and then there was a comfortable silence.

"Sherlock wants to try, he just can't," John said, out of nowhere.

"I know, I should be trying too. We are family, after all. All he's got here is Mycroft… family reunions were always the worst with him. And you, John."

"What? No, I'm just Sherlock's flat mate," he responded, a little too quickly.

"No, you're much more than that. You're his friend, companion, partner, everything. You've got a lot of pull around here, and you might not know it. I've been here for a _day _and I can tell."

"I'm not gay, you know," was his response.

Sherlock disappeared back down the stairs with a smile on his face.

xXx

**Review, lovelies **


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